Video: Quants! You’re NOT Measuring VALUE and Nelson’s Theory of Universal Value

President of Investment Research Brian Nelson defines the concept of universal value and shows how quantitative statistical methods are inextricably linked to those of fundamental, financial, business-model related analysis. Value does not exist in respective process vacuums! Value is universal. Find out why. Running time: ~10 minutes.  Tickerized for Valuentum’s stock and ETF coverage universe. Transcript Hi this is Brian Nelson from Valuentum Securities, and this is the tenth edition of a series that I call “Off the Cuff,” where I get in front of the camera and I talk for ten minutes. This is what we have to talk about today. We have to talk about this concept: The Theory of Universal Value. Value does not exist in vacuums … Read more

Charting Cash Flow and Net Debt — The Oil Majors

Traditional free cash flow generation has been strong for the oil majors through the first nine months of the year, but their balance sheets remain bloated with net debt. A few haven’t covered their cash dividends with free cash flow generation through the first nine months of 2017. Oil & Gas – Major: BP, COP, CVX, PTR, RDS, TOT, XOM

Will Texas Tea Hit $75 Per Barrel By Year’s End?

Image Shown: The performance of the VanEck Vectors Oil Refiners ETF (CRAK) since its launch in August 2015. We’ve witnessed our fair share of fits and starts from energy resource pricing during the past few years, but could the global crude markets finally be rebalancing? Let’s talk about our thoughts on whether the outlook for energy resource pricing is improving in a sustainable way. By Kris Rosemann and Brian Nelson, CFA It may have taken longer than we initially anticipated, but crude oil prices (USO) appear to be on the verge of making a sustained recovery, though we always caution that sentiment can change on a dime, especially in the speculation-heavy commodity price markets. If you recall, we thought the … Read more

Valuentum’s 3 Breakthroughs in the Field of Finance and More

Valuentum’s President Brian Nelson pauses for a picture before speaking at the CFA Society of Houston in March 2017. By Valuentum Editorial Staff Let’s cover Valuentum’s 3 major breakthroughs in the field of finance. The first one is big and may challenge you to rethink everything you think you know about investing. 1. On a logical framework, Valuentum has debunked John C. Bogle’s landmark syllogism that has paved the way for the concept of index investing. Index investing has been built on a logical shortcoming, whether supported by evidence or not. We think it is important that the investment community know of this. Read (pdf): The “Luck” and “Randomness” of Index Funds (2018), Brian Nelson, CFA See video documentation: /FALLACY_of_Index_Funds To … Read more

Recent Material Fair Value Estimate Changes

By Kris Rosemann Let’s begin this edition of ‘Recent Material Fair Value Estimate Changes’ with a discussion of some of the highest-profile names that made the list. If you require background reading on why we make changes to our valuation models, please see: What Causes Fair Value Estimates to Change? We’ve raised our fair value estimates for two of the holdings in the newsletter portfolios, General Electric (GE) and Union Pacific (UNP). The sprawling and evolving industrial portfolio of General Electric is one of the more exciting portions of our portfolios, as the industrial giant boasts assets with authoritative positions in areas from the rapidly expanding Industrial Internet of Things to the rebounding energy services space. An increase in near-term … Read more

This Oil Stock Is Surging!

The Valuentum analyst team digs into recent developments in the oil and gas space and highlights one of the most leveraged ways to play rising crude oil prices. ~12 mins. If you cannot view the podcast below, please select the link here or view the transcript that follows. Tickerized for Valuentum’s oil and gas coverage universe. Chris Araos: Hello, this is Christopher Araos at Valuentum Securities, and today with us is Brian Nelson and Kris Rosemann. Today, we are going to talk about the outlook on oil and gas. Brian Nelson, CFA: Thanks Mr. Araos. I think to kind of set the stage for this conversation, we probably need to bridge the gap between what was truly the depths of … Read more

Is OPEC For Real This Time?

By Kris Rosemann On September 28, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached an agreement to cut crude oil production levels for the first time since 2008. The cartel reportedly agreed to limit production of member nations to a range of 32.5-33 million barrels per day (bpd) while leaders met at the International Energy Forum in Algiers, Algeria. As would be expected following such news, the price of crude oil has bounced, bringing market sentiment surrounding energy-related stocks higher along with it. The proposed production could be a reduction of up to 750,000 bpd from OPEC production levels in the month of August, but how the group of nations will reach such a production cut has yet to … Read more

Question Answered: The Process Is As Important As the Idea

We like to publish excellent questions and the answers to them at times for the benefit of all members. Let’s start with the answer first. A: This is a great question because it hits at the heart of our process. We not only look at the intrinsic valuation of equities, but we also evaluate the market’s conviction in the company’s undervaluation via pricing information, more commonly applied via technical and momentum work. So, in short, we like stocks that have both good value and good momentum indicators, hence our name Valuentum, and we’d only view the top tier of our ranking system 8-10 as ideas for consideration (generally), but only after the ones in the newsletter portfolios (the Best Ideas Newsletter … Read more

Dividends Not Safe as Energy Markets Swoon

We’ve been cautious on the oil and gas markets (XLE, AMLP) for some time, and that includes our October move closer to market neutral on the sector, but we’re still underweight the group. We’ve been saying that crude oil prices are more likely to hit the $20 per barrel level than move significantly higher, and we maintain our view that they may never again return to the $100 per barrel, a level many have grown accustomed to. After all, why should they? Unfortunately, the fallout continues to punish traditional “buy and hold” investors who have been trained to ignore most “news” and may still be holding on the belief of the fallacy of mean reversion, something that we believe cannot … Read more